Functional Text - How-To: How to Get Involved in Politics — Unit test Answers

It seems that political campaigning is growing in popularity in the United States. Every town, city, state is at any one time, having an election to fill some elected government position. And, of course, every four years, we have a national elections for which the campaigns last for months and months. If you are involved in politics or not, there may come a time when you want to volunteer your time helping your favorite candidate get elected. Read on to learn how to volunteer for a political campaign.1. Find your candidate’s local office. Every candidate running for any office will have an office near you. It may be a storefront, but the office will exist. To find it, listen to radio commercials, check in the newspaper, or on the Internet. 2. Call or just walk into the office. Someone will greet you and ask what they can do for you. When you say you want to volunteer, the greeter will probably ask what you can do. Don't worry if you can't use a computer or be a graphic designer or write campaign jingles. The campaign needs so many people that no matter your skills or lack of them, you will have plenty to do.3. Understand that stuffing envelopes, making hundreds of phone calls and stapling signs together are a major part of any political campaign. You need no skills to do any of those tasks. 4. Finally, this entire three ring circus has to be managed and orchestrated, from telephone campaigns, to balloons to transportation for voters to the polls. Chances are your reward for your hours and hours of hard work will be a host of new friends and a party at the end of the campaign whether your candidate wins or loses. Read the short article above and write a brief summary of the main idea.

List the budget details by aligning the color next to the text to the pie chart. Example: Pink: EU as a global player is 5,5% Identify smallest to largest %’s Cohesion & Competitiveness for growth and employment-blue Direct aids and market related expenditure-green Rural development-light green Total administrative expenditure-gray The EU as a global player- pink Citizenship, freedom, security and justice-yellow Compensations Bulgaria and Romania-orange

Discuss the meaning and tone of the underlined word in the passage below: The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.

Based upon what you read in “The European Union and their Budget”, practice making a budget on your own provided you make $2,000 a month. You start with $200 deducted for taxes. Rent with utilities included is $900. What kind of things would you put into a budget for yourself? For example: food, car insurance, gas, entertainment, cell phone, savings.

Read the following text and summarize the main idea about agriculture in Africa. Use sequencing to organize your thoughts.Analysis of the impacts of climate change suggests that agro-ecological systems are the most vulnerable sectors. Agriculture in low latitude developing countries is expected to be especially vulnerable because climates of many of these countries are already too hot. Further warming is consequently expected to reduce crop productivity adversely. These effects are exacerbated by the fact that agriculture and agro-ecological systems are especially prominent in the economies of African countries and the systems tend to be less capital and technology intensive. Predictions of impacts across regions consequently suggest large changes in the agricultural systems of low latitude (mostly, developing) countries.

Explain the main goal of the 27 democratic countries in Europe (EU). How do they plan to achieve this goal?

Write a sentence using your vocabulary word: partisan.

What is the tone of the following text, what words are used to support the tone? Explain.The verdict in the O.J. Simpson trial has given new life to the old quip that if you ever get into trouble with the law; your fate is likely to be determined by twelve people who are not even smart enough to get out of jury duty.

Directions: Read the passage, and answer the question that follows. Write a summary of the passage. Remember, a summary should be much shorter than the passage. Try to write between 2-3 sentences.

Find the persuasive words that are used in the passage below:No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.

Describe one of the well-known Irish traditions spread around the world mostly because of emigration.

Explain how you would start your own MUN club at school.

Imagine you were running for office in your school. List the steps you would take to organize and run your campaign.

Describe the details of the poster above

Directions: Read the passage, and answer the question that follows. Tornadoes Go to Hollywood1 Inevitably, successful action movies have special effects that “wow” their audiences. A tornado is one type of special effect that can be impressive. In real life, these wind monsters attract many people’s curiosity. The high-speed spinning of tornadoes can cause great destruction. So, it isn’t surprising that these destructive forces on the big screen can make or break a movie’s popularity. 2 It is risky for moviemakers to tackle weather as part of a big screen project. Nobody does it better than Mother Nature, right?Dorothy’s “Ride” to Oz3 The movie The Wizard of Oz was released in 1939. Most people are familiar with Dorothy’s journey to the magical land of Oz. The tornado thrilled audiences as it swept Dorothy’s house out of Kansas and into Munchkinland. The movie’s technical details were considered quite high-tech for the 1930’s. 4 The moviemakers wanted the tornado to look realistic. It took several tries to get the tornado to look right. The original twister was a 35-foot-tall rubber cone. However, the material was too stiff. Adjustments had to be made so that it would appear more natural. The special-effects person tore it down quite a few times. Eventually, he was inspired by windsocks. These simple weather instruments are made of tubes of fabric attached to the top of a pole. When the wind blows, the fabric points in the direction that the wind is blowing. The improved tornado was made of cloth. This new 35-foot wind monster was very flexible. It could move from side to side, bend, and twist—just like the real thing!5 Now the special –effects person needed to figure out how to make the twister move. A steel framework was hung from the stage’s ceiling. The top of the fabric cone was attached to it. This framework could move across a wide stage. It allowed the tornado to cover large distances. The bottom of the tornado was hidden in a slot in the stage floor. A long pole was inserted through the bottom end of the cloth cone. The pole was used to move the twister from side to side. People at the top of the cone pulled it in one direction, while others are the bottom moved it in the opposite direction. The combined actions made the tornado appear to move back and forth. 6 Other adjustments had to be made to make the tornado appear realistic. To prevent tearing, a thin wire was woven into the bottom of the fabric. Next, a powdery brown dust was sprayed into the fabric cone. The dust made the tornado appear less solid. The dust seeped through the fabric to create soft, blurry sides for the tornado. Then, clouds of yellow-black smoke were puffed onto the set from above. The smoke completed the realistic appearance of the tornado. Finally, this twister was ready to take Dorothy away from Kansas!Computer-Generated Tornadoes7 It has been very difficult for special-effects crews to figure out how to improve upon the tornado in The Wizard of Oz. It is considered to be a special-effects masterpiece. However, modern audiences have become much better at detecting what is real and what is fake in movies. The creators of the film Twister wanted their tornadoes to appear as real as possible, too. They decided to use computer-generated, or digitized, tornadoes. 8 To find out what a computer-generated tornado would look like, a test shot was developed. This “test twister” represented a large, black tornado throwing out dirt and a large tractor tire. It took 10 weeks to create. The director was very happy with the results. It was actually used for the movie’s advertisement. 9 Actual filming for Twister began in 1995. Computer crews developed software programs to make the tornadoes realistic. Using computer technology, the behavior of a single object could be changed. For the first time, it was possible to light particles such as dust from different angles. The shading and movement of the twisters in this film were more realistic than anything done before!10 Animators were able to create realistic digitized tornadoes of various sizes. The size and strength of a real tornado is judged using a Fujita scale, or F-scale. The least destructive tornado is classified as an F1. The most destructive is an F5. Animators created virtual tornadoes F3 and smaller by using solid cones with added layers. The layers shaded part of the tornadoes, making them appear more realistic. Larger tornadoes needed to appear more solid. Therefore, many layers of debris were added. Animators were also able to spin larger tornadoes slowly, just like real tornadoes move. 11 Besides the actual tornado itself, computers were used to create other aspects of the film. Computer programs created digitized cloudy skies and stormy weather. Computer programs also made a cow fly past a truck. Some of the debris that was tossed around in the twisters was computer-generated as well. Blown Away12 Audiences were very impressed by Twister. The tornadoes looked real. Computer generation proved to be a successful way to create natural disasters on the big screen. However, some scenes have made movie watchers skeptical. It is impossible for cars and trucks picked up by a tornado to fall out of it in perfect condition. The movie made errors when these objects fell out of the twister unchanged. Despite a few unbelievable scenes, much of the movie was convincing thanks to computer technology.